Title: Which risk approach to protect occupational health and safety? Evidence from Italian regulations

Authors: Michela Marchiori; Valentina Albano; Francesco Maria Barbini

Addresses: Dipartimento di Studi Aziendali, Facoltà di Economia, Università degli Studi di Roma Tre, Via Silvio D'Amico, 77, 00145 Roma, Italy ' Dipartimento di Studi Aziendali, Facoltà di Economia, Università degli Studi di Roma Tre, Via Silvio D'Amico, 77, 00145 Roma, Italy ' Dipartimento di Scienze Aziendali, Università di Bologna, Via Capo di Lucca 34, 40126, Bologna, Italy

Abstract: Occupational accidents are one of the greatest causes of death and injury. Each year, more than 2.3 million people die from accidents at work and approximately 317 million people are victims of non-fatal occupational diseases. The magnitude of the problem has inspired the introduction, at both international and national level, of legal rules to protect health and safety at work. This paper proposes an organisational discourse on the approach to risk prevention proposed by these norms and the methodological issues related to the development of operational guidelines. We then discuss the consistency of the approach to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) risk prevention promoted by the Italian OHS regulations with respect to its objectives, i.e. to avoid the occurrence of accidents and occupational diseases.

Keywords: occupational health and safety; OHS risks; risk prevention; risk management; OHS regulations; organisational systems; management systems; organisational action; Italy; occupational accidents; occupational diseases.

DOI: 10.1504/IJENVH.2013.054084

International Journal of Environment and Health, 2013 Vol.6 No.3, pp.191 - 206

Received: 20 Oct 2012
Accepted: 17 Nov 2012
Published online: 21 May 2013 *

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